Art Trap Productions

December 2009

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This Big Finish Audio is really quite good. I'm not sure about the aliens but they are very original, almost like angels of light while being vulture like scavengers and tricking even Susan...well, tha'ts not hard is it? This starts out with the theme to the Hartnell Doctor Who era and ends the same. And yes, Susan is in it and David is dead...how many Susan returns is that now? We've had that poor 5th Doctor Radio Times story with Susan as a princess that wasn't a time lady and the Master, we've had Susan in one of the John Peel Dalek/8th Doctor novels where, unless memory disserves me, SUsan and the 8th Doctor do not meet or do so very very briefly, and we've had a radio satire of Who Was Susan Foreman or something like that. We've had a few UNBOUNDs with Susan but formerly in the audios Susan has not met any of the later Doctors. And even when she did in the TV show in FIVE DOCTORS, the entire issue of her background is skirted around.

Lots to listen to coming up on BBC Radio 4 - luckily, we can use "listen again" on the iPlayer. And, anyway, haven't I employed enough BBC actors by now to get to use the damn thing here? :)

Here's a cool one:

Doctor Who - The Lost Episodes: Shaun Ley investigates what happened to 108 missing episodes of Doctor Who from the 1960s, why the tapes were wiped and how dedicated fans hunted down copies of other episodes in film collections from Cyprus to New Zealand. And while we may have lost those early programmes, Shaun hears how home recordings ensured all the audio survived.

Well taken for it is it is not bad at all. It has this sort of aura about it that is pure sci fi fantasy and can only happen in a show like DW or Lost In Space or Space: 1999 and that ilk. It has this TWILIGHT ZONE feel to it and part of that might be that that show used props from the fantastic movie THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, at least I think so. THIS is not as good as SHRINKING MAN for that movie had for its time brilliant special effects, fantastic realistic sets, and phenomenal musical scores as well as good plot and acting. The main cast here is pretty good, as ever, even Susan. This, though, is not as good as LAND OF THE GIANTS, which came later and had for its time brilliant effects, stirring musical pieces, and enlarge and fantastic sets. And real life real world type characters for the most part and were likable. Here as part of DOCTOR WHO, this is remains a curious piece of how the show can stretch.

A belated Happy Birthday to Nicholas Courtney who turned 80 on the 16th of December. Nicholas Courtney has been connected to the Doctor Who series going back to when William Hartnell was the Doctor. He is best known for his role as Brigadier Sir Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. Aside from appearing in two episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures last year (Enemy of the Bane parts 1 and 2), he has yet to appear in the series since its return in 2005, although there have been some references.

A special birthday wish and thank you goes out to Nicholas Courtney for the years of enjoyment he has brought to our screens throughout time and space.

The Doctor had a contract to produce some nonfiction books for a publisher (a reference to some series of books in the '70s that I don't remember) but hadn't delivered on his contract. The Doctor decided to get back to one and pulled out a dictaphone (or something like that) he'd used at the start to see where he was at. The 4th Doctor's voice comes out with the initial notes on the book. It's only a minute or two long.

It's interesting that it was considered far superior to the Dead Ringers' impersonations as it was done by Jon Culshaw, who is the person who does the Tom Baker impersonsations on Dead Ringers!

I would guess that the BBC would not approve new Fourth Doctor adventures voiced by an impersonator and I won't really want to hear them, myself.

You can currently listen to Night Waves: Sacred Monsters (BBC Radio 3) which features new Doctor Who Executive Producer and Head Writer, Steven Moffat. He talks about his work on the series, Matt Smith as the new Doctor, and what we are about to see in the upcoming series.